Cleaner-tasting drinking water from its own faucet at the kitchen sink, for Markham homes on the municipal supply.
Most Markham homes are on the municipal supply: hard, and disinfected with chlorine or chloramine to stay safe in the mains. Some families taste that treated note in tea and buy bottled water or refill a jug filter; others are tired of film in the kettle.
An under-sink RO system fixes both at the tap you drink from: a carbon stage chosen for the disinfectant takes out the taste, and the membrane holds back dissolved minerals. Our guide to RO drinking water systems explains the equipment.
Under the sink, the house matters too. An older Unionville or Markham Village kitchen may still run on rusting galvanized; a home built in the 1980s or early 1990s may have grey Poly-B, and one from the mid-1990s into the 2000s may have Kitec. We check what actually feeds the tap before choosing a connection; our Markham plumber page covers each pipe type.
An RO faucet changes the water in your glass. Every other tap keeps the water it always had.
Carbon goes first to take out the taste and protect the membrane, which either disinfectant damages. Chlorine needs ordinary carbon; chloramine needs catalytic carbon or longer contact, matched to your readings.
The membrane rejects most dissolved solids, including hardness and softener sodium.
Bathrooms, the washer and the heater still get hard water with its disinfectant.
A membrane does not disinfect; properties on private wells should have bacteria testing and suitable treatment before RO. Rust from old galvanized only clogs pre-filters sooner; new pipe cures it.
Your own plumbing changes what reaches the sink. We check whether the kitchen cold line is softened, since hardness shortens membrane life, record a dissolved-solids reading to judge the RO output against, and gauge the pressure. Free and total chlorine readings show whether the supply is chloraminated, which decides the carbon. In older Unionville and Markham Village homes we look for rust in aerators, which sets filter intervals. More on testing municipal and well water.
Before any fitting goes on, we note hardness, dissolved solids, the chlorine readings and incoming pressure.
Sound copper gets a tee and its own shut-off. If the connection turns out to be corroded galvanized, polybutylene or Kitec, that short section is replaced rather than teed into a suspect fitting.
The faucet uses a spare or drilled opening, and the reject line joins the drain above the trap, opposite any garburator. The tank is mounted to keep the cupboard usable.
Tubing to the fridge is run if wanted. We flush the system, check for seepage, test against the first reading and label each cartridge.
In a Markham house with a softener, the RO faucet becomes the drinking and cooking tap, leaving most of the added sodium behind.
Boiled RO water stops the white film Markham's hard supply leaves in the kettle, and the jug filter and bottled water can go.
In Cornell, Wismer and Box Grove, a fridge line may have to cross a finished basement ceiling, so we agree the route before drilling.
A faint disinfectant taste before the carbon is due is worth a call. On chloramine it usually means the carbon stage, not the membrane.
Stages and an optional remineralizing cartridge set the system price. Fitting costs follow the kitchen: an existing hole or drilled stone, the distance to the fridge, and replacing Kitec, polybutylene or galvanized where we connect. A basement-mounted unit takes more planning in the finished basements of Cornell, Wismer and Box Grove. You get the price in writing before work starts.
Carbon keeps chloramine off the membrane and can give out before any taste returns, so it is changed, and its housing sanitized, on the date marked at install.
In Unionville and Markham Village houses still on galvanized, the sediment cartridge browns and slows the faucet early. Swap it first; new pipe is the lasting fix.
Unsoftened Markham water wears a membrane sooner. We compare the RO dissolved-solids reading with the install-day figure; a steady climb means it is due.
We place the tank where its air pressure can be gauged at service. After a holiday, run the RO faucet until the tank is empty, then close it and let the tank refill before drinking.
Match the system to what bothers you. For taste in a glass, RO at the sink is the direct answer. For crust on taps, shower doors and appliances, water softener installation in Markham treats every fixture and extends membrane life. For the disinfectant smell in a hot shower, whole-home carbon filtration, using catalytic carbon for chloramine, treats water where it enters.
From AquaTec Plumbing, a licensed York Region plumbing company.
Book a test at the tap. We explain what RO will and will not change, with the price in writing first.
